A woman and children cover their noses as they walk past rubbish bags piled up next to overflowing garbage containers in Seville, Spain. / Laura Leon, AP

by Ana I. Bernal and Meritxell Mir, Special for USA TODAY

by Ana I. Bernal and Meritxell Mir, Special for USA TODAY

MALAGA, Spain -- Sanitation workers began shoveling huge piles of rotting garbage off the streets of Seville on Friday following an agreement that ended a weeklong strike by sanitation workers.

But Spaniards here will likely continue to avoid al fresco dining and drinks in the town's outdoor cafes for some time.

The usual sweet orange-blossom fragrance of its tree-lined streets will still stink of rotting fish and produce for days while workers try to clear 7,000 tons of refuse that piled up during the strike.

"These days no one sits outside to have a drink or eat something because it is impossible with that smell," said Juan Manuel Garcia, owner of a bar in downtown Seville, in southern Spain, of the trash left uncollected since Seville's garbage collectors went on strike Jan. 27.

Andres Ferreras' business is suffering hard from the onslaught of garbage. Sales at his downtown shoe store dropped 50 % since the strike started. He has only been able to open one-third of the store's display windows because the rest have been blocked by a 30-by-6-foot pile of waste.

Ferrara said his situation was becoming "unsustainable." When the sun hit his side of the street, the smell became "unbearable."

"Today the situation is worse," Ferrara said Friday. "There is more garbage and some bags got set on fire last night, so it was a miracle my store didn't go up in flames."

Massive layoffs and deep salary cuts are spreading in Spain as the country enters its fifth year in recession and unemployment has reached 26%. That has led to a spate of strikes. According to the Ministry of Employment, at least 80 national strikes will take place this year, 23% above 2012.

Seville, like many Spanish cities, is under pressure to end municipal overspending to alleviate the country's debt crisis.

The city's shaded squares and cobbled streets became heaped with garbage after the 1,300 workers of Lipasam, the city's waste collecting company, walked off the job in protest over the mayor's plans to cut their salaries by 5% and add 2.5 hours of work to their schedules.

"Our salary has not increased one cent since 2008 so our purchasing power is smaller and smaller every year," said Antonio Bazo, union leader at Lipasam, stressing that inflation and tax increases have added to workers' troubles.

"We understand that people are angry, but we believe that workers' efforts to keep their rights are fair," said Bazo, who admitted that "it hurts" them to see residents paying the consequences of their demands.

The strike in Seville not only affected residents but threatened to disrupt one of the city's biggest forms of revenue: tourism.

Tourism represents 11.5% of the economy in this lively city of 800,000. Its Old Quarter, a labyrinth of centuries-old homes, is a favorite destination as is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the See, and the city's stunning example of Moorish architecture and artistry, the Giralda, built in medieval times when Seville was under Muslim rule.

The garbage in the streets was especially harmful to Seville's many cafe and bar owners, whose establishments are normally filled at lunchtime for the comida, the day's main meal.

Seville's local government, led by the conservative Popular Party, defended the salary cuts. It said it must comply with the debt target imposed by the Spanish federal government in Madrid. The agreement reached Thursday requires the union members to take a 3.6% cut in salaries.

Many in Seville were worried that the strike would cause hygiene problems.

"I have a 10-month-old baby and every day I have to pass by parts of the city inundated with garbage, the smell is unbearable, and I am afraid that my child might get an infection," said Paloma Palacios, a finance controller.

Despite the agreement between the city and workers, "the same mountains of trash" were on her streets Friday.

Labor unions in Spain have received significant power from the Spanish government since the days in which they were outlawed by a dictatorship that ended in the 1970s. But many city residents said they were fed up with the union demands.

"I understand they are protesting but we can respect only to a certain extent what they are doing because it affects us all," said Miguel Angel Oliva, a sales representative.

Others were more sympathetic.

Sebastian Martin, a law professor at the University of Seville, said he bikes to work every day and the strike made his routine challenging because he encountered bike lanes blocked by garbage bags. And the smell was sickening.

"It is all this garbage on the street that should make citizens realize the importance of the garbage collection services â?¦ and how essential they are for the community," he said.

"Instead of a uniform cut in the workers' paychecks, what (the government) should do is put an end to the unjustifiable salaries of the executives and managers who work for public companies," Martin said.